Some Twilight Interim
by Guyute24
Summary: InuYYH crossover: A series of 100 word drabbles devoted to my favorite pairing. SangoHiei
1. Thaw

**A/N: Yes, I know I have absolutely no business starting another project without finishing the ones I've already got going, but I just couldn't help myself. The following was inspired by a contest/challenge posted on the Kindred forums (a Sango/Hiei sanctuary, for all those interested) back in the winter calling for 100 word Sango/Hiei drabbles. "Snowman" was my entry, but I thought it just seemed awfully lonely, and I had so much fun with my T.T. drabbles, I couldn't resist expanding on the idea.** **Thus, a series is born. There will be approximately 10 chapters of three drabbles (likely all unrelated) a piece, though this one has an extra little bonus. **

**Also, special thanks to EmaniaHilel, whom I give full credit for the title. She had thrown it out as a potential for a series of hers in another fandom and was most gracious enough to let me borrow it. Thank you, Lovely!**

**That said, I hope you all enjoy this little project of mine. Feedback is greatly appreciated, and if you sign in, I'll be more than happy to reply. Peace, all.**

"_Too solemn for day, too sweet for night,  
Come not in darkness, come not in light;  
But come in some twilight interim,  
When the gloom is soft, and the light is dim."_

_--William Sidney Walker_

_**Hate**_

The truth was, Hiei had never bothered to wonder _why._

Yet here it was, hanging in the air between them like a hydrogen balloon, ready to explode in a great ball of flame.

_'Why do you hate me so?'_

She'd said it, but he knew without ever facing her that she hadn't expected an response. And what was worse...he didn't have one. He'd been so determined not to answer to anyone about anything, that he'd never taken the time to answer to himself.

When he turned to find the huntress gone, he wondered if that was her true question.

_**Sleep**_

Sango had never been a curious sort. Not any more than most, really.

But as he lay there with the shadows, wrapped in the tranquility of sleep, the sharp lines of his eyes softened in a way his consciousness never allowed, Sango found that she was, indeed, curious.

And for the first time, she just couldn't help herself.

And even as he caught her there, brushing the feather soft wisps of hair away from the angles of his face, and held her gaze hard as the steel clamp of his fingers upon her tiny wrist, she knew...

She wasn't sorry.

_**Fireflies**_

She liked fireflies.

It was one of the many bits of knowledge he'd collected about the slayer since their arrival in this time. Unconsciously, of course. It wasn't as though he was..._watching_ her.

He wasn't.

After all, it wasn't his fault if his favorite tree happened to be at the edge of a clearing where they were particularly thick. And he couldn't be blamed if, on a warm, midsummer's eve, she would slip into his corner of the world just to watch them dance.

And if his thoughts drifted to the soft glow of her skin in moonlight, or the far-off look in her eyes as she listened to the symphony of nightfall in quiet respect, he _wasn't_ curious.

...Right?

_**++BONUS++**_

**_Snowman_**

He hated the snow. Even before the associated sting of rejection. Before the bitter chill splintered inside and his heart became winter.

He _hated_ it.

"I love the snow." And he watched, fascinated, as her breath rolled like smoke, and crystalline melted upon her cheeks, ruddy from the fire that burned within her.

He hated…

…But she was _so_ beautiful.

"Hn, you would."

Just the slightest turn of her lips and that spark behind her eyes lit anew, and Hiei went completely still as she folded her warmth around him.

And there, amid the falling snow, he felt the thaw.

* * *

**Yeah...okay, so "Fireflies" is 22 words over the limit. I liked it better that way, so sue me. Hope you all enjoyed!**


	2. Liar

**A/N: So, here it is, the next installment of _Some Twilight Interim_. As evidenced with the first two, some of these drabbles are, indeed, interrelated. Others won't be. I have no idea which themes, when, or why. It's just a matter of my not so methodical whims. Hope you all enjoy, anyway. Peace, all.**

_"She gave her heart to the man in the long black coat." --Bob Dylan_

_**Picture**_

Her head tilted just slightly, a gesture Kurama noticed that she often made when in thought, before she placed the snapshot back upon his dresser with care.

"Something troubles you?"

"No."

The fox eyed her curiously, and she offered him a soft smile of reassurance.

"I was just wondering how you managed to get him in the picture."

Kurama grinned. "I never said he was happy about it."

"...Is he ever?"

The emerald gaze sharpened, an expression Sango couldn't decipher written in its depths. "Is that important to you?"

"...No." She didn't really know.

Amusement tugged at his lips. "Liar."

_**Autumn**_

"You're getting awfully comfortable with the slayer."

Kurama paused in his writing, casting a sidelong glance at the fire apparition. "Does that bother you?"

"Don't be absurd, fox."

The kitsune sighed, looking up from his assignment. "We've met before."

Hiei might've looked disinterested, but his eyes betrayed him.

"It was Autumn," he recalled. "We'd raided a mountain village." Kurama repressed a smile. "Nearly took my head, if memory serves."

The koorime snorted. "Fool."

"Perhaps." The fox hesitated, then, "...We're just friends, Hiei."

The demon pinned him with a scalding glare. "I care not."

Kurama grinned, remembering a similar conversation. '_Liar.'_

_**Peach**_

Sango peered around curiously before settling her suspicious gaze back to the kitchen counter.

It was a peach.

They didn't _have_ any peaches. She knew. She'd checked.

...But it was there, sitting harmlessly on the Formica, as though it always was.

And it occurred to her, suddenly, that this wasn't the first time she'd been thinking of something only to have it appear within her grasp shortly thereafter. Her missing bath beads...keys to her lockbox...her favorite CD...and now...

Delicate fingers plucked the fruit from its resting place as she considered whether that whisper of dark was simply imagined, after all.

* * *

**A/N: So...yeah, "Peach" was three words over the limit. I couldn't compress it any more and keep the tone I wanted; somehow, I don't think anyone's going to kick up an angry mob over it. Thanks for reading! And please feed the author!**


	3. Hope

**A/N: "Slice" is the follow up to "Peach" from the last set of these. I know it's been a while, so it would likely be helpful to read over that one again, first. **

**And I'll be honest, these aren't really my best work, but they have a sort of charm that just sits well with me. I hope you all enjoy them as much.  
**

**Much love to all who have read and left feedback. The response is much appreciated, and you have my sincerest thanks.**

_"Do I dare to eat a peach?" _--T.S. Eliot

_**Slice**_

"So, are you going to eat it or just sit there and stare at it all day?"

Sango wouldn't dignify that remark with a response even if she _had_ one.

"Look," Kagome sighed, pulling a knife out of the top drawer, "I'll even slice it for you..."

Sango snatched the fruit from the counter, cupping it protectively. Honestly, that was the heart of the matter, wasn't it?

Suppose she did slice it? Then that perfect, beautiful peach isn't so perfect anymore.

Or worse...what if it's rotten?

She turned it in her palm and breathed deeply. Only one way to find out.

Juice dribbled down her chin, and for the first time in a long time, Sango smiled.

_**Hope**_

"Why?"

She stilled, looking thoughtful, the hard edge of her expression dampened only by the exhaustion settled on her skin.

She always looked this way when she crossed paths with her brother, Hiei noticed. He would have sympathized, if he were capable of such a thing.

But he wasn't. And Hiei could make no sense of how she could continue as she had..._hoping_. Day after ruined day. Burning the piece of heart she kept for him with each village slaughtered.

Hope was a dangerous thing. Cruel. And they both knew it well.

"Sometimes," she breathed, "it's all we have."

_**River**_

She could feel the thundering in his chest long before she opened her eyes to find him wrapped around her on the riverbank, both of them soaked to the bone.

"You saved me?" The words drifted through her lips, and Sango thought just briefly she might have seen more than the same question burning in his deep, scarlet gaze.

A long silence and then a stiff nod before he slipped from her touch and vanished, as a wisp of smoke.

She smiled, contented in knowing that the river had wanted her.

...But he'd wanted her more.

* * *

**So, I'm not always so good at keeping these precisely 100 words. "Slice" was a little over, and "River" was a little under, but I figure as long as I keep it in the ball park, it's all good. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed. Feedback is much appreciated.**

**Peace, all.**

* * *


	4. Confession

_**Chapter Four: Confession**_

_"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."_ -- Oscar Wilde

*_**Candle **__**  
**_

History was cruel. He could see it, the horror absolute in her eyes as she stared down black stone memorial, thousands upon thousands of names burning deep into her memory.

How very unfair, Hiei thought, to know the humans she protected were capable of far greater evil than that which she sheltered them from.

She knelt, the pop and hiss of sulfur stinging the air as he watched, fascinated with the soft glow of her skin, a candle, bright and gentle as the prayer upon her lips.

"Why have you come?" Sango whispered.

"Why have you?"

"In the darkest of hours, they are still my people."

_**Game**_

It was purely physical, he told himself, ignoring the brief swell inside his chest as her fingers brushed his thigh, the catch in his throat when he met her eyes through the silk curtain of her hair.

A game between them and nothing more, he thought as the heat of his touch engulfed them, a soft cry of surprise and need the only thing left to hang in the air between them.

He gasped, his skin prickling beneath the soft sweep of her lips, and he knew. Hiei _knew_.

It was only a game. But who was winning?

_**Confession**_

Sango staggered back, dropping to her knees in the moonlight at the smoldering look in the deep, claret of his eyes.

To come so far, the words she'd been desperate to say had simply evaporated.

"Do you fear me?" he growled, grabbing her by the hair.

"No." Foolish perhaps, but true nonetheless.

"You should." And it was his shame, his confession. _'I will hurt you one day, Sango. I will be your end.'_

She touched him, forgiveness he'd never give himself in the whisper of her fingertips. It was her truth, her confession.

She knew, and she did not care.

* * *

_* This particular drabble addresses the matter of the 1945 attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and it is very likely something you'll see again in Pride and Absolution if you follow that particular storyline. I've often wondered how Sango would take it when faced with the undoubtedly the worst in human brutality, though in my head I'd originally had this interaction between her and Koenma. No telling where it'll actually end up and if I use it at all._

_Oh! Can anyone tell me just exactly why it is that refuses to let you underline anything in text? Just a passing annoyance.  
_

_Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed. I do love some drabbley goodness. Peace, all, and please feed the author.  
_


	5. Jealousy

_**Chapter Five: Jealousy**_

"_Jealousy is the tie that binds, and binds, and binds…" _--Helen Rowland

_**Sun**_

It burned in the places he touched her, a heat that settled into her skin when he whispered the lines of her face and took her by the wrists.

"Do you care for him?" A tighter grip, breath as a desert wind across the shell of her ear.

"O-of course. Houshi-sama is my friend."

"He's more than that to you," he hissed, trailing fire in angry furrows along her skin.

She stilled beneath him, a grim finality. "Not anymore."

The demon stretched her arms above her head, and she felt him smile against her, warming her through like the sun.

"Good."

**5**

_**Frost**_

"Why do you turn away?"

The breath iced over in her chest, heart shuddering to a stop beneath the weight of his gaze. How she'd longed for him to look at her in this way, once.

"Sango," he whispered, and it was painful. Bitter and cold, like a frost settling on her skin. "Please."

A very small piece of her heart wanted to stay there and always would. But if he knew…if he _saw_…

"You turned away long before I did, Houshi-sama."

**5**

_**Conviction**_

Hiei's eyes turned to stone, gaze cool and condescending through the blanket of hate between them. "I needn't explain myself to you, _human_."

The word was foul, and it settled into the air between them like a toxic fog, feeding the pulse of his anger.

"She's not some demon plaything to be used and thrown away at will when something else comes along!" the monk hissed, shaking. "She deserves better."

His was the face of Judgment, and Miroku felt the ball of lead settle into the pit of his stomach when the demon spoke, pinning him beneath the weight of his own conviction.

"Indeed."

* * *

Hope you enjoyed! Please feed the author if you are so inclined.


	6. True Beauty

**A/N: For YFate, because she's awesome, and I promised I'd try. **

**Chapter Six: True Beauty**

_"There's a darkness upon me that's flooded in light, and I'm frightened by those who don't see it."_ - The Avett Brothers, _Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise_

_**Hurt**_

Despite what many believed, Hiei had known true beauty. Had seen it in the ruddy embers of the day, when the demon sun burned the sky into ash. Felt it in the warm breath of summer upon his face and the stillness of night as it drifted into place around him.

And yet, there were moments like these, when his eyes focused on the way her skin prickled, naked beneath the soft, cool wash of rain, and the sound of her shuddering, broken cries echoed into the dark. He swallowed hard from the shadows, jealous of the hurt weaving around her heart as he would never, and realizing.

Hiei _had_ known true beauty. Now, he understood it.

_**Soft**_

They were alike in ways he'd never wanted to consider. He felt it – like a heartbeat, deep and hollow below skin stretched too thin. Every step, every pulse; he carried her burden as a warrior's drum, like the funeral droning in his chest.

"I'll find him, Sango," he told her once as she touched him, fingertips grazing the valleys of his skin, maps of his failures. "I'll bring him back to you."

She smiled, and it was so soft it crushed the air from his lungs.

"No you won't."

And he could see it, then, in the dark pool of her gaze.

At least a part of her didn't want him to.

**_Gift_**

She hadn't expected a response at all, and for one so very candid – vulnerable even – Mukuro found herself doubly surprised. She blinked. Once…twice, the baleful gleam of her metallic eye sharp in its study of his face.

It was somehow softer than she'd remembered.

"She smiles? This … _girl_. This slayer of demons. She smiles, and this is why you return time and again to that festering bog of evolutionary waste known as the living world?"

He sighed, the taut line of his shoulders more at ease than it might have once been.

"She smiles, and it is a gift."

_Peace, all. Hope you enjoyed._


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